


Bonds of the Past

by FettsOnTop (GTFF)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: Angst and Feels, Cliegg/Shmi is problematic, F/M, One Shot, Slavery, baby Boba, the Jedi are problematic, what if
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-20
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-08-31 09:53:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,304
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8573767
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GTFF/pseuds/FettsOnTop
Summary: Shmi Skywalker has a history with Jango Fett.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [alexiel-neesan (alyyks)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/alyyks/gifts).



> alyyks just HAD to come up with this pairing and now I ship them so hard.

 

Shmi is beginning to suspect she’s being followed. Mos Eisley has a reputation for being a rough and dangerous place, but she’s certainly no stranger to rough and dangerous places. 

Cliegg worries. He always worries, but they only have a few hours to get all of the supplies they need so they can return to the safety of the farm enclosure by dark. Splitting up is the most efficient way to get it done. 

Shmi is careful to stay on the main street as she leaves the market, her purchases safely tucked into the bag she carries under her cloak. A Weequay she passes looks beyond her and moves far to one side of the road. What’s behind her?

She keeps moving.

The docking bays are on her right now, with all of their large, shadowy hangers. She turns sharply into one of the largest ones. There are workers around. Surely no one would try to rob her here. 

It hangs in the back of her mind, because it always does, that perhaps someone has recognized her. Someone who might have seen her at Watto’s shop. They might think she escaped, or they might try to kidnap her and sell her back into slavery. 

It happens.

She can’t take it anymore. She looks over her shoulder and nearly jumps out of her skin. There’s a man right behind her, so much closer than she thought. He’s covered from head to toe in imposing silver armor and wearing blasters at his side. 

“Shmi.”

Her heart is pounding so loudly in her ears that she almost misses it. But then he raises his gloved hands to his helmet and removes it. 

“Jango.” The name is barely out of her mouth before she flings herself at him. His arms wrap around her, holding her so tightly it’s hard to pull back far enough to see his face. She has to touch it, just to make sure he’s real. “I can’t believe it. You’re alive!”

“So are you.” There’s a raw note in his voice as they stare at one another for just another moment longer. Then he takes her hand. “Come with me.”

He leads her to one of the docking bays in the back where an oblong ship waits. 

“I can’t-” She pulls her hand free.

Jango turns to face her, his eyes on hers. “Then tell me who to pay off or tell me who to kill, because either way, I’m getting you out of here.”

“No, it’s not like that. I’m...married.” She doesn’t know why it’s so hard to say it. 

“Oh.”

“I’m so happy to see you,” she tells him, and she means it with all of her heart. “When they took you and the others off the  _ Hesperus _ , I feared you would end up in the spice mines.”

His mouth flattens into a long, grim line. “Your fears were correct. Took me a while, but I managed to escape. I tried to find you. I tracked you as far as Nal Hutta, but no one knew what became of you after that.”

“It’s a long story, but I was freed a few years ago.”

“And Ani?”

Her breath catches in her throat. “He’s free as well. But he’s not with me.” 

Ani was only a few months old when they made their long journey aboard the slave transport  _ Hesperus _ . When the other slaves complained about his crying, Jango glared at them until they quieted. “It’s the change in pressure,” he growled. “He can’t help it.”

From that moment it was always the three of them. Jango came from a Mandalorian clan where there were always babies and children running underfoot. They pushed their pallets together in a corner, away from the others, and that was their home. They were lovers, even though very little physical intimacy could be managed in such a place. They were family. 

And then one day the transport stopped, and fifty men were taken off to be sold for labor. Jango was one of them. Shmi begged him not to fight, for his own sake. “Save your strength,” she told him. “Wait until the time is right.”

Clearly, he had. She finds herself wishing, suddenly and sharply, that he had found them before they left Nal Hutta. Before Watto, before the Jedi came. They could have been a family again. They could have been happy. 

“Come aboard,” Jango says. “Just for a few minutes. There’s someone I want you to meet.”

He takes her into the ship. There’s a stasis field shielding the open side of a bunk, and when he turns it off Shmi sees a toddler with dark curly hair, maybe past his first year but still round-cheeked like a baby. His eyes light up when he sees Jango, and he reaches for him eagerly. “Daddy!”

Jango picks him up and holds him close for a minute, nuzzling into his curls. “Shmi, this is my son, Boba. Boba, say hello.”

“No.” Boba replies, but he peers over Jango’s shoulder at her with bright, curious eyes. 

“Oh, Jango.” Shmi touches one chubby hand where it grips his father’s sleeve “He’s so handsome.”

“Of course he is. Here.” He hands the boy over to her. 

Shmi sits on the bunk, holding Boba facing forward on her lap so he can still see Jango. “Is his mother here too?”

Something like amusement flickers in his eyes. “There is no mother.” He lifts one arm and speaks a few words into the communicator mounted on his armored gauntlet. The lights in the berthe blink once, as if the ship is talking back. “He’s a clone of me.”

Shmi looks again at the boy on her lap. “You cloned yourself. To have a son.”

“That’s right.” 

The look in his eyes is a challenge to take issue with it. Shmi bounces Boba a little instead. “I’m very happy for you.” 

“Should I be happy for you?”

She keeps bouncing Boba. He flaps his arms in excitement and makes happy noises. “What do you mean?”

“Your husband. He treats you well?”

Suddenly she feels guilty, even though she hasn’t done anything. Cliegg is a kind man. He bought her. He freed her. She’s not his slave, she’s his wife. “Yes, of course. He has a little boy too. Owen. He’s Ani’s age.”

And every day she cares for him and watches him learn and grow, and she wonders who’s caring for Ani. What is he learning? Who is he growing up to be? 

“Where is Anakin?”

Shmi knows he won’t like it. “Coruscant. He’s being trained at the Jedi temple.”

A shadow passes over Jango’s face. “They took him from you.”

“He wanted to go.” Boba is wiggling on her lap, wanting to be bounced again. “It was the only path I saw. I know how you feel about the Jedi, Jango, I know what they did to your people. But I have to believe that I did the best thing for my son.” She gives Boba a quick hug and hands him back to his father before she stands. He’s so small and precious. If only-

No sense going down that road. “You take him with you?” She asks Jango. “Everywhere you go?”

“Not always, but...he’s good company.” Boba lays his head against his father’s breastplate. The hardness of it doesn’t seem to bother him. 

“I should go,” she says. “My-he’ll be worried.”

“Do you want me to walk with you?”

“No. I’ll be fine.” She looks up at Jango, and she doesn’t know what to say. “Will you be back?”

“Possibly.”

It hangs between them, unspoken. 

Shmi leaves the ship. She walks out of the docking bay, out into the blinding sunlight. It seems bright now, but dusk comes quickly on Tatooine. And Owen is waiting for them.  

 


End file.
